Jack Deth
Trooper Jack Deth is the main fictional character and hero of Charles Band's Trancers series. Played by Tim Thomerson in the first five films, he is a Trancer Hunter from the 23rd Century who has dedicated his life to 'singing' trancers - Zombie like slaves with weak minds (nicknamed "squids"), who pledge their lives to the power hungry and often psychic villains in each of the six films. Biography Future Cop When we are introduced to Jack in the original Trancers, he is a widowed cop / bounter hunter from the year 2247, working in Los Angeles (now flooded out by the ocean following a massive earthquake, and renamed Angel City). Jack briefly retired from the police force for neglecting his duties, when he chose to continue depleting the many disciples of his nemesis, Martin Whistler, whom he believed was dead. Unkown to Jack, Whistler instigated a plan to return to the year 1985 using the body of his ancestor, Detective Weisling, in order to hunt down and murder the ancestors of the three Angel City counselers. Jack was tasked by the council to return to LA using a time drug that regressed his consiousness. This bizarre technique enabled people to inhabit the body of an ancestor before a time machine was built. After it became apparant what Whistler's plans were, Jack was transfered into the body of Los Angeles journalist Philip Deth, and was sent a box containing a time freezer watch with a single use generator, as well as a couple of photos and a revolver containing two viles of time serum. This was intended to send Whistler back to 2247 without a vessel, as Jack had destroyed Whistler's body in his own time. The other was to be used on Jack himself, so he could get back home. Jack / Phil and Phil's girlfriend Lena (Helen Hunt) teamed up to stop Whistler, surviving one attack at a tanning parlour, but were too late in saving two out of the three ancestors, leaving only Hap Ashby, a former baseball pitcher turned hobo. Jack was temporarily extracted from the mission by his boss McNulty in the body of a kid, until Jack convinced Chairman Ashe to send him back so he could complete the mission. Jack and Lena discovered that Whistler was monitoring Skid Row, because Hap was living out on the streets. After escaping from Whistler's police goons and saving Ashby from Whistler, Jack lured Whistler to China Town, where he managed to effectively destroy Whistler using the serum. This was done so Jack could save the life of Weisling. But because the other vile got broken, Jack had to remain in LA with Lena and Ashby. The Return of Jack Deth Some time passed and Jack married Lena, the love of his life. They peacefully lived in a large estate with Ashby, until they came under threat from Whistler's brother, Dr. E.D. Wardo in the year 1991. With the help of Lena, McNulty, Ashby, and Jack's resurrected future wife Alice Stillwell, Jack managed to foil a trancers conspiracy instigated by the organisation known as GreenWorld, who had been mass producing the illegal 21st Century drug Scurbosa. With Wardo dead, Jack was suppost to go back with Alive in the newly built TCL Chamber. But Jack chose to stay with Lena. Realizing Alice was on borrowed time, Jack used the TCL Chamber to send Alice forward in time, so she could live on in the far away future. Deth Lives Less than a year later, Lena filed for a divorce, due to Jack's obsession with his work, and they were on the verge of reconciling their relationship. However, Shark, a super tough android, kidnapped Jack and brought him back to the future by order of the council. In the future, a stronger breed of trancers had left Angel City at a standstill. McNulty had been replaced by Harris, and Jack was instructed to go back in time to 2005 using the TCL Chamber, so he could destroy the trancers at their source. Lena remarried during the time Jack had been away from her, changing her surname to Forrest. When Jack found her again, she had become a successful journalist, out to exploit the maniacal Col. Muthuh, played by Dirty Harry's Andrew Robinson. Jack believed the girl in Lena's house was a child she had with her current husband, but he eventually finds out in Trancers 6 that the girl (Josephine) was his own daughter. The council did not tell Jack about her sooner, in order to spare his feelings. With the help of a trancer escapee named R.J. and Shark, Jack was able to destroy Col. Daddy Muthah and his trancers, after they had been captured and held in their base of operations. However, R.J. suckoned to the trancing drugs she was inflicted with, and Jack had to kill her before she lost total control of her senses. Following the mission, the council appointed Jack the official peacekeeper of time, and he was giving a new partner - Shark. Together, they searched for anomalies in time and worked to mend them. ("Time is fluid," he says, "And I'm the guy who makes sure the glass doesn't get knocked over.") Jack of Swords / Sudden Deth After losing his partner Shark, Jack was tasked with going to an undisclosed time period in Kansas, which enabled the writers to insert a jokey reference to Judy Garland's famous line in The Wizard of Oz. Unfortunately, a plant creature known as a Solonoid interfered with the TCL Chamber, and Jack wound up trapped in the mystical world of Orpheus, which was under the reign of vampiric trancers, collectively known as Nobles. They fed on the human populice, and if their victims turned a glowy red, this meant they were in grave danger, according to observation. Trancers 4: Jack of Swords and Trancers 5: Deth Lives saw Jack engage in a fierce battle with the mighty Caliban, where his weapons had no effect. Jack eventually fulfils a fortold prophecy, which leads to the temporarily defeat of Caliban, with the help of a rebel group called the "Tunnel Rats" and Calbian's son Prospero, who had chosen to align himself against his Father. Following their victory, Jack and Prospero journeyed to a dangerous territory called the Castle of Unrelenting Terror, where they had to search for a talisman called the Tiamond, which (as the name suggests) was diamond-shaped and about the size of a fist. The Tiamond was Jack's only hope of returning to his own world, as the TCL Chamber had been destroyed. Once inside the terrible structure, Jack and Prospero overcame many challenges. Jack also defeated an evil doppelganger of himself. By doing so, he was rewarded with the Tiamond, which was almost stolen by Caliban after he was revealed to be the wolf who fought off their attacker in the woods. After being injured by Caliban, Jack uses the Tiamond to send himself and Prospero back to LA after Prospero kills Caliban. Because of the time difference, Prospero was no longer a Noble, and he told Jack he wanted to stay for a while. While stranded in Orpheus, Jack also had a short-lived relationship with Lyra, an alternate dimensional version of a scientist he met in his own time, but was far from the intelligent woman he knew in LA. Jack also inpregnated her, although this plot point was quickly dropped from the main storyline. No mentioning of this plothole exists in the next instalment of the series, Trancers 6. Nonetheless, it can be speculated that Josephine has a half-sibling in Orpheus. Life After Deth Jack Deth appears briefly in Trancers 6, via archive footage that is strung together to give viewers a glimpse of Tim Thomerson, appearing as the character that made him a B-movie icon. However, many fans considered this move insulting and unfaithful. Although Tim has expressed interest in returning as Jack Deth, even comparing the character to Peter Falk in Columbo. He jokingly said he wanted to see Jack Deth vs. Dollman, refering to his role as Brick Bardo. Trancers 6 starred Zette Sullivan as Jack's long lost daughter, Josephine. Jack inhabited her body during a mission to stop a new legion of trancers, lead by Shauna Wilder (Jennifer Capo). Tim Thomerson appears in character in the 2006 horror/comedy film Evil Bong, which features several character cameos from Full Moon Features. An action figure of Jack Deth was planned for a limited release. But the collapse of Full Moon prevented this from happening. Category: Characters